New terrain art
Comparisons with old graphics:
Maps can now be decorated with doodads like flowers, mushrooms, stumps and little rocks. Trees now also have up to 4 different variations and leave behind stumps when chopped down by woodcutters.
New building art
Newly painted buildings (yes, again) will now show progress while being built. (right now only the storehouse and inn, because it takes a long time to paint)
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Magi and magic
A big feature of this alpha are magi that are able to cast spells. Mana is created in Mana Monoliths, which is a new building where a monk can sacrifice food and cattle to generate mana. Mages can then harvest this mana by casting the 
'gather mana' spell on a Mana Monolith.
Currently, the mages have a varied list of spells that are useful in combat, economy and niche situations. (the list or individual spells will probably change in the future)
Transmute Iron to Gold - Transforms 5 sacks of iron ore into 10 sacks of gold ore.
Transmute Timber to Stone - Transforms 10 timber planks into 5 stones.
Summon Stone Golem - Transforms a stone tile into a golem.
Summon Clay Golem - Conjures a golem from dirt, must be cast on a dirt, grassy dirt or grass tiles.
Ice Wall - Conjures a wall of solid ice to block enemies from passing through that will melt in X seconds.
Frozen Bridge - Freezes a water tile, causing it to be walkable for a short period of time. If the ice melts, the unit standing on it will die.
Rune - Places a rune on the ground that will explode once any unit steps on it, dealing X damage.
Banish - Places enemies in an area in a magical prison, causing them unable to do move. If used on a summoned unit, it will be instantly destroyed instead.
Town Defense
Unlike in previous versions, the player now has more options in defense than before. Other than walls and soldiers, there are now traps and watch towers that shoot arrows. If all else fails, civilians now also defend themselves with crude weapons like a knife, This way a single enemy soldier in middle of the road won't slaughter the whole town of defenseless serfs.
Full Changelog:
**Game changes and new features:**
-All civilians can now defend themselves with rudimentary weapons, so that even 1 enemy soldier in middle of the town isn't game over
-New building: Watch tower, uses arrows to shoot down nearby enemies
-New building: Mana monolith, here, monks sacrifice food and ale to generate mana
-New character: Ladder Carrier, can be used one time to place a ladder to scale walls
-New character: Mage, consumes mana from a mana temple building to cast spells
-New ware: jewel, crafted by metallurgist in goldsmith's workshop
-Soldier training facilities can now set rally point
-Added a button to find and cycle through hungry soldiers
-Added notifications (for enemy attacking, unoccupied buildings etc.)
-Monastery remade into Brewery, is 2x3 instead of 4x4 in size
-Soap is now a luxury for tier 2 houses, and boots are for tier 3
-Reduced the construction time of roads and fields (dirt road - 25% faster, stone road - 40%, field - 17%),
(to speed up the game at start)
-Reduced growth time of flax by 33%, resulting in flax fields not requiring to be as large as grain fields
-Increased school training time from 8 to 15 seconds
-Increased building construction time (+20%)
-Building modes can now be switched before they are built (so you can prevent a flax farmer accidentally planting grain seeds before you switch modes)
-Buildings now show whether they are inhabited or not when selected
-Right clicking the order wares button increments the amount by 10 and left-clicking while holding shift increments by 100
**Graphics and audio:**
-Trees and stone leave behind stumps and smaller rocks as leftovers when being destroyed
-Trees now have up to 4 different variations
-Terrain redrawn to look darker, contrasty, and less sharp edges to look more natural
-Fish are smaller and less visible
-New music
-Added decoration doodads: flowers, stumps, rocks, mushrooms and more...
**Optimizations:**
-Game performs better with multiple players and multiple larger settlements
-Delivery road pathfinding performance hit reduced to almost 0
**Bug Fixes:**
-Fixed units teleporting towards their destination when stuck in a traffic
-Fish can't be placed ontop of lilypads so they look like they float above waterIf you have feedback for anything mentioned in the article, either say in the comments below or in the feedback channel in discord server.
